.png&optimizer=image)
Do not index
Do not index
The first thing conventional wisdom tells you when it comes to starting out as a creator is to "find your niche."
What happens then is that most creators pick a specific topic, like "email marketing," and call it a day.
But here's the thing: this approach is all wrong.
Instead of simply picking a topic and sticking with it forever, what if I told you there's a game-changing approach to uncovering your true niche?
Get ready as we dive deep into niching by transformation. Or, as I like to call it, finding your Red Pill.
Why you shouldn’t niche by topic
While many creators do it, focusing on just a topic for your niche may not always be the best approach. Here’s why:
#1 - Limiting your curiosity
Narrowing down your content to a specific topic will restrict your creative freedom.
If you have diverse interests or enjoy exploring various topics, confining yourself to a niche might stifle your ability to express yourself fully.
#2 - Evolving interests and expertise
As creators, our interests and expertise evolve. You may feel trapped if you commit to a specific niche early on.
Yes, you may be like “email marketing” now, but what about five years from now?
Yes, you might be talking about “gardening for beginners,” but will you be a beginner in 5 years?
#3 - Flexibility and adaptability
The digital landscape is constantly changing, and trends come and go (Hello AI 👋)
Being flexible with your topic will help you adjust to the constant changes, explore emerging topics, AND keep building your audience.
#4 - Burnout and loss of motivation
This is the most important. One of the top reasons creators fail is burnout.
If you’re solely focused on a niche, you’ll likely lose interest in it.
I’ve been there. Ask other creators. They’ll all have experienced some content burnout.
Having the freedom to explore different subjects can help maintain your energy for creating content.
If not a topic, what instead? Introducing the Red Pill Approach
Now don’t get me wrong: The niching-by-topic approach works. Thousands of creators have built successful careers with it.
But I think there’s a better way.
You should pick your niche based on Transformation.
And you might ask, “What Transformation? From who?.”
From your Audience.
And their journey from Point A to B.
Let me get cinematic for a moment to explain: If you have seen The Matrix, there’s this infamous scene where Morpheus offers Neo to take the Blue Pill or the Red Pill.
Taking the Blue Pill means staying in contented ignorance.
Everything will stay the same, and Neo gets to keep living in this ideal (but fake) world ruled by machines.
Taking the Red Pill instead means learning a life-changing truth.
It means learning about how the real world works and that there’s an alternative.
A better way. A Transformation.
Neo chooses the Red Pill, and that’s how the movie begins.
In a creator's context, the Red Pill means the Transformation you offer to your Audience.
You are Morpheus offering that Transformation.
Before, your niche would be “Email marketing.”
With a Red Pill approach, your niche is “Monetizing your writing skills.”
Now this Red Pill niche can still encapsulate email marketing. Writing emails is a great way to make money from writing.
But it can also include social media writing, writing a book…All kinds of writing that make money.
You are still niche in a way (writing), but the little box you were trapped in before is now WAY bigger. So much you can barely see its walls.
Red Pill examples: Jay Clouse and Kieran Drew
Let’s get more clarity with some real-life examples 👇
Jay Clouse earns over $40,000+ per month helping other creators “go pro” aka monetizing their expertise.
If he followed a classic niche approach, he would be talking about audience building or building a digital product. But, unfortunately, that would also be all he could ever talk about.
He would be trapped by his niche.
Instead, he has a Red Pill: to help other creators become “professional creators.” And that encapsulates building an audience, a digital product, and much more!
You can see him talking about design and revenue streams, two topics that are not really related but that build towards Jay’s Red Pill:
Another great example of this is Kieran Drew. Kieran used to be in the “writing” niche until he realized it was trapping him.
He used to give writing and storytelling advice when he realized that writing was the first step towards something more significant: Freedom.
That’s when he rebranded his newsletter to Digital Freedom, and things exploded. His newsletter grew like crazy, and so did his audience (over 160k+ followers at the time of writing this):
His Red Pill is to guide his audience towards freedom with writing.
But he also talks about selling digital products, growing his newsletter, personal experiences…All because he went bigger than writing and chose a Transformation.
Both these creators approach their niche from a Transformation, instead of by a single topic.
They’ve built a Red Pill, put the Morpheus disguise and they offer it to their audience.
How to find your Red Pill
Just as a niche, a Red Pill is not something you pick and stays immutable forever. It evolves.
I'm still in the process of figuring out mine after more than two years of doing this.
These are the two questions that are helping me get there:
→ Who are you trying to help out?
First, figure out who you are helping. You can group them by profession (marketers, writers, developers, farmers…) or by stage (beginners, experts…), or by a combination of both (expert marketers).
→What Transformation does your content/product/service help them achieve?
Here’s a quick way to think about it: list all your target audience's pain points (the response to the first question). Then state the Transformational journey they must go through to fix that pain point.
It doesn’t need to be too complex. Let’s look at one of the examples above: Jay wants to help other creators live off their expertise.
That includes many things, like building an audience, building revenue streams, and much more.
This would all fit under the “Going pro” Red Pill.
Figuring out this first statement is critical. Once you have it, you can start figuring out what content topics are in it.
But first, you need to figure out who you are helping and the Transformation they need.
Why is finding your Red Pill so important?
Figuring out your Red Pill will give you CLARITY. Clarity on:
- What type of content to produce
- What kind of products to build
- What kind of services to offer
- And who to make those for
When you nail your Red Pill, the rest will come your way. It’s like magic.
Again, I’m not saying that picking a niche by topic isn’t practical. It's great to get started and narrow down what you want to create.
But having a Red Pill is much more.
Now you have a message, a Transformation you want to set into the world.
A mission if you prefer.
And your content's only purpose is to share that Transformation with the world.
.jpeg&optimizer=image)
.png&optimizer=image)